The way to Play the Remaining Fantasy Video games in Order

For 35 years, the Remaining Fantasy franchise has captivated followers with its anthology model of storytelling, maintaining issues recent with new characters and tales. It even tends to set the time intervals someplace between previous and future in every sport whereas maintaining them related with the identical plot: a bunch of younger heroes gathering to combat an important evil threatening their world whereas they exploring their inside struggles and relationships with one another — a common theme that individuals can relate to.

When you’re new and wish to get into the Remaining Fantasy sequence, there are 15 numbered video games (with Remaining Fantasy XVI on the best way), just a few direct sequels, and a prequel to the primary sport. It seems like quite a bit, however we’re right here that will help you make the journey into the RPG franchise a little bit smoother.

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Which Remaining Fantasy Recreation Ought to You Play First?

Trying on the Remaining Fantasy franchise as a complete may be overwhelming as most of them have a whole lot of hours of content material to play by way of. If you wish to ease your self into the franchise, we advocate beginning with Remaining Fantasy VII. This sport left an indelible mark on the sport business for having the simplest gameplay and fight programs to get a hold of, particularly with the Restrict Break system, and giving us essentially the most memorable characters, like Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Sephiroth. Its recognition impressed Sq. to create Kingdom Hearts in collaboration with Disney in order that a few of its characters may work together with Disney characters.

Remaining Fantasy VII even got here out with a feature-length CGI and Remaining Fantasy VII Remake, which has prettier graphics however retains the identical story with themes of pro-environmentalism, id, and transferring on from loss — parts that earlier Remaining Fantasy tales didn’t have. Both model of the sport is ok to select up and play.

The way to Play Remaining Fantasy Video games in Chronological Order

If you wish to do a deep dive into the Remaining Fantasy franchise and play all of them in chronological order, right here’s the total record of video games and the order during which to play them. Although you may play many of the mainline numbered in any random order and nonetheless be positive as there is no such thing as a direct continuity between them.

1. Stranger of Paradise: Remaining Fantasy Origin

Stranger of Paradise: Remaining Fantasy Origin takes place within the kingdom of Cornelia, a darkish fantasy world model of the setting of the unique Remaining Fantasy sport. Jack Garland and his companions and fellow Warriors of Gentle, Ash, Jed, Neon and Sophia — every carrying a darkened crystal representing earth, wind, fireplace and water — got down to discover Chaos and destroy him, restoring gentle to the world. Regardless of what the prophecy foretold concerning the heroes, every Warrior grows skeptical about their position.

You possibly can change characters’ jobs on the fly, however with Jack because the participant character you may solely change between two positions. Irrespective of his job title, Jack has a decisive ending transfer that crystallizes enemies and shatters them to revive a portion of his magic meter as soon as the enemy’s break gauge is depleted.

Learn our overview of Strangers of Paradise: Remaining Fantasy Origin.

2. Remaining Fantasy

Centuries after the occasions of Stranger of Paradise, Remaining Fantasy introduces 4 new younger Warriors of Gentle, every of them carrying an orb representing the 4 parts which were darkened by the 4 Elemental Fiends. At first, they’re tasked by the King of Cornelia to rescue Princess Sarah from the evil knight Garland, however their journey expands to defeating the fiends and restoring the orbs to their former glory, thus saving the world from everlasting darkness.

Remaining Fantasy will get its title from sequence creator Hironobu Sakaguchi’s menace to go away the video games business and return to school if it didn’t promote properly, and Sq. Enix coping with the notion of the sport being its final as a result of menace of chapter. In the end, the sport offered over 1.3 million copies worldwide and grossed over $21 million, saving each the corporate and Sakaguchi’s profession.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy.

3. Remaining Fantasy II

In Remaining Fantasy II, Firion, Man, Maria, and Leon change into orphans after the Palamecian Empire destroys their hometown and kills their mother and father, rendering them orphans. They be part of the Wild Rose Rebel and, underneath the steerage of Princess Hilda, who initially deemed them too younger to affix the military, journey to cease Emperor Mateus’ plans to take over the world together with his hellspawn.

Not like the primary Remaining Fantasy, the sequel had no character creation or job system as a result of Sq. wished the sport to be extra story-driven reasonably than crammed with heavy gameplay mechanics. This sport is notable for introducing a few staples that might without end outline the sequence: chocobos and the recurring inventor character Cid.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy II.

4. Remaining Fantasy III

One other group of 4 orphaned teenagers — Arc, Refia, Luneth, and Ingus — are drawn to a crystal of sunshine within the Altar Cave after an earthquake hits the village of Ur. The crystals grants the youth a portion of its energy, their first set of jobs, and instructs them to revive steadiness to the world.

Remaining Fantasy III is the primary numbered sport within the sequence to characteristic the job-change system, permitting gamers to vary how the characters would battle monsters all through the sport. As a substitute of staying in a single job or class, they might discover different job choices and see which one fits every character. The 2006 Nintendo DS remake retained the weather of the unique sport, however gave the characters extra well-rounded personalities.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy III.

5. Remaining Fantasy IV

Remaining Fantasy IV facilities on Purple Wings captain Cecil Harvey, who questions the King of Baron’s motives after he and his knights steal the Water Crystal in a raid on Mysidia. After the king strips him of his title as punishment for disloyalty, Cecil units out on a quest with Kain Highwind and the allies they meet alongside the best way to cease the sorcerer Golbez from seizing the opposite crystals with a purpose to save the world.

This sport launched the Energetic Time Battle (ATB) system, which permits characters to carry out a transfer when their gauge is full. Whereas a celebration is proscribed to 4 folks within the earlier video games, Remaining Fantasy IV allowed a celebration of 5 characters.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy IV.

6. Remaining Fantasy V

Adventurer Bartz Klauser comes throughout a fallen meteor and finds 4 strangers, together with King Tycoon’s daughter Lenna, and set off on an journey to avoid wasting the Crystals from falling aside, a phenomenon attributable to Exdeath, an entity attempting to free himself from imprisonment and acquire the ability of the Void. The group turns into Warriors of Gentle and focuses their consideration on defeating Exdeath and stopping the Void’s energies from plunging their world into darkness.

Remaining Fantasy V expanded on the job system, giving gamers greater than 21 jobs to select from. To make the job system much more attention-grabbing, you may mix a ability you study from a sure job with a distinct ability from one other job with a purpose to defeat difficult dungeons and managers.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy V.

7. Remaining Fantasy VI

Set in a steampunk-style world crammed with know-how resembling that of the Second Industrial Revolution, Remaining Fantasy VI facilities on a insurgent faction often called the Returners preventing the Gesthalian Empire, which gained the ability to take over the world by experimenting on magical creatures often called Espers. The Returners, together with amnesiac former imperial soldier Terra Branford, work to free the areas underneath Gesthalian management utilizing the magic they search out and put a cease to the empire’s reign.

Remaining Fantasy VI, which was launched as Remaining Fantasy III in North America and closely censored as a consequence of Nintendo of America’s insurance policies on the time, has 14 playable characters to select from all through the story, making it the most important solid within the sequence’ historical past. It additionally offers with mature themes of immoral army dictatorship, use of chemical weapons in warfare, the pursuit of a magical arms race, private redemption, and the renewal of hope and life. That is additionally the primary Remaining Fantasy sport to not be directed by Sakaguchi, who handed the reins over to Yoshinori Kitase.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy VI.

8. Disaster Core: Remaining Fantasy VII

Set in Midgar seven years earlier than the occasions of Remaining Fantasy VII, Disaster Core: Remaining Fantasy VII facilities on fresh-faced SOLDIER Zack Honest, who’s assigned to search for lacking SOLDIER and defector Genesis Rhapsodos, who went off on a rampage for causes unknown. Throughout his search, he discovers Genesis’ origin, Mission G (or the Jenova challenge) and the way it’s related to the 2 aforementioned high-ranking SOLDIERs, and ultimately battles him and different merchandise of the challenge, which entails injecting Jenova DNA into them.

Disaster Core: Remaining Fantasy VII was notable for exploring the delicate aspect of Sephiroth, essentially the most profitable SOLDIER beloved by everybody earlier than he went insane after discovering the unnatural circumstances of his creation and rapidly fell from grace, in addition to a few of Cloud Strife’s life as a SOLDIER earlier than leaving Shinra Electrical Energy Firm. It was initially a PSP-exclusive title, however managed to get remastered as Disaster Core: Remaining Fantasy VII Reunion for PS5, PS4, Xbox Sequence X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Swap in honor of the twenty fifth anniversary of Remaining Fantasy VII.

Learn our overview of Disaster Core: Remaining Fantasy VII.

9. Remaining Fantasy VII

In some of the iconic video games of the sequence, ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary Cloud Strife joins Avalance (led by Barett Wallace) within the combat to cease Shinra from lining the corporate’s pockets by mining all of the mako from the planet to make use of as an vitality supply. Cloud initially fought for private acquire and to maintain a promise he made to Tifa Lockhart after they had been youngsters, however ultimately developed friendships with different members of Avalanche, together with Aerith Gainsborough, and works with them to avoid wasting Midgar from each Shinra and Sephiroth, who was hellbent on destroying the planet with a purpose to be reborn as a demigod.

With the retention of ATB and the introduction of Materia, Remaining Fantasy VII grew so common that almost all of its characters appeared within the Kingdom Hearts sequence and spawned the CGI sequel movie, Remaining Fantasy VII: Introduction Kids. It additionally spawned the full-blown remaster, Remaining Fantasy VII Remake, which will likely be launched in three elements. The primary half was launched in 2020, whereas Remaining Fantasy VII Rebirth is about to come back out in Winter 2023.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy VII.

10. Remaining Fantasy VIII

On this contentious follow-up to Remaining Fantasy VII, a bunch of younger SeeD mercenaries led by Squall Leonhart (or Leon, as he’s recognized within the Kingdom Hearts sequence) assist out a bunch often called the Forest Owls, an endeavor that escalates right into a battle by Sorceress Edea, who has seized management of a robust army state and intend to destroy time itself. As they combat to cease Edea, Squall struggles together with his position and falls in love with Forest Owls chief Rinoa Heartilly.

Remaining Fantasy VIII nonetheless incorporates ATB as a part of its gameplay, but it surely overhauled the character leveling system. So far as spell-casting goes, the sport threw out the Magic Factors-based system, making characters gather, draw, and create magic from gadgets to energy themselves up utilizing the junction system as a substitute. That is additionally the primary sport to include a vocal theme into its soundtrack with “Eyes On Me” by Hong Kong pop star Faye Wong.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy VII.

11. Remaining Fantasy IX

Within the first Remaining Fantasy sport of the millennium, a thief named Zidane Tribal is tasked with kidnapping the Princess of Alexandria, Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, as part of a struggle wage towards the neighboring nation of Lindblum. His thief troupe finally ends up turning into the princess’ guardians, and Zidane groups up with Garnet to defeat her mom, Queen Brahne, who began the struggle.

Regardless of Remaining Fantasy IX being launched in 2000, when most sport franchises transitioned from 2D to 3D graphics by then, Sq. Enix designed the sport to appear like a retro-style RPG. Nevertheless, it nonetheless managed to render CGI graphics for the characters and every little thing else on this planet of Gaia.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy IX.

12. Remaining Fantasy X

Remaining Fantasy X is without doubt one of the most beloved video games within the sequence subsequent to Remaining Fantasy VII — and we’re not simply saying that as a result of it’s the primary Remaining Fantasy sport for the PS2. The story revolves round star blitzball participant named Tidus, who’s taken to Spira — a world impressed by the South Pacific, Thailand, and Japan — by Auron after his hometown of Zanarkand is destroyed by a colossal monster named Sin. He joins summoner Yuna and her guardians on a quest to defeat Sin and produce concerning the Calm after studying its true id is Tidus’ lacking father Jecht.

This sport changed ATB with the Conditional Turned-Primarily based Battle system that makes use of an Act Record during which characters’ turns are decided by their stats. It additionally launched a brand new leveling system referred to as the Sphere Grid, which units characters down a particular path with stats and skills and permits them to unlock all their skills as soon as it opens up.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy X.

13. Remaining Fantasy X-2

Within the follow-up to Remaining Fantasy X, Yuna turns into a sphere hunter and a member of the Gullwings, comprising Rikku and Paine. She units out to seek out Tidus — or not less than, a mysterious man who seems to be like Tidus — however will get caught in a political battle that the Gullwings should resolve earlier than it escalates to a struggle involving a secret weapon that was constructed to destroy Spira.

Along with being the primary sport within the sequence to be an official sport sequel, Remaining Fantasy X can be the primary to characteristic an all-female solid and have a number of attainable endings. It introduced again ATB, however enhanced it to permit characters to interrupt enemies whereas getting ready to assault. It additionally launched dresspheres and the Garment Grid, which permit characters to vary their character class mid-battle to change the course of the battle.

14. Remaining Fantasy XI

Sq. Enix took a web page out of World of Warcraft and made Remaining Fantasy XI an MMORPG as a substitute of an everyday console sport. Gamers may customise their characters and make it into one in all many races of being roaming the land of Vana’diel — Humes, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Mithra, Galka, and so forth. The plot revolves round defeating a demonic chief referred to as the Shadow Lord, who rose from the ashes of the Crystal Battle and despatched his beastmen armies off to terrorize the land, albeit in a much less organized style.

Help for the PS2 and Xbox 360 variations of Remaining Fantasy XI resulted in 2016, however followers can nonetheless play it on PC. Rumors circulated final yr that the sport would shut down, on condition that it’s over 20 years previous, however director Yuji Fujito acknowledged that that was not the case. In different phrases, it’s nonetheless alive and properly and beloved by many retro Remaining Fantasy followers.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy XI.

15. Remaining Fantasy XII

Remaining Fantasy XII is about within the kingdom of Ivalice, the place the Archadia and Rozarria empires are preventing an limitless struggle with one another. When Dalmasca is annexed by the previous nation, Princess Ashe kinds a resistance motion and meets Vaan, who desires of turning into a sky pirate, teaming up with him to rally towards the tyranny of the Archadian Empire.

Remaining Fantasy XII took three years for Sq. Enix to develop after Remaining Fantasy X-2 was launched, and it paid off. It received a number of Recreation of the Yr awards and spawned the Nintendo DS sequel, Remaining Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, in 2007. Over a decade later, the remastered model of the sport, Remaining Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, launched on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Swap, and Home windows.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy XII.

16. Remaining Fantasy XIII

Lightning, the sequence’s first feminine protagonist apart from Yuna in Remaining Fantasy X-2, is a former soldier residing within the floating world of Cocoon whose sister Serah goes lacking after she’s branded an enemy of Cocoon by the federal government, Sanctum, for coming in touch with a god-like creature from Pulse. As Lightning searches for her sister, she’s joined by a band of allies to rally towards Sanctum for authorizing a purge on residents who additionally got here into contact with Pulse, leaving the destiny of the world in danger.

This sport wasn’t acquired properly not as a result of it had a feminine lead, however reasonably as a result of it had complicated battle programs — Command Synergy Battle and Paradigm Shift — and linear maps. Even so, it was well-received and spawned two extra direct sequels.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy XIII.

17. Remaining Fantasy XIII-2

Three years after the occasions of Remaining Fantasy XIII, Serah takes the lead and groups up with Noel Kreiss, a younger man from the distant future, to journey throughout time and house to seek out Lightning. In the meantime, Lightning finds herself in Valhalla, a realm between loss of life and chaos on the fringe of time within the distant future, dominated by the goddess Etro, who she protects as a knight throughout a struggle with Caius.

Remaining Fantasy XIII-2 retained the Command Synergy Battle and Paradigm Shift programs, however they had been improved upon to make battles circulate higher. Mog Clock was added to the combo, which prompts gamers to assault monsters on the sector earlier than time runs out to achieve the higher hand in battle.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy XIII-2.

18. Lightning Returns: Remaining Fantasy XIII

Within the final installment of the Remaining Fantasy XIII trilogy, Lightning awakens from her 500-year hibernation to find that the world is about to finish in 13 days. She is chosen by the god Bhunivelze to avoid wasting everybody, however alongside the best way she learns the reality concerning the world’s destiny and Bhunivelze’s actual motives.

Gamers slammed this sport as a result of it featured a ticking clock that signifies how lengthy you had till the sport was over, placing a strict time restrict on missions and aspect quests. Its saving grace was the closely modified model of the Command Synergy Battle system, which employed real-time options, like freely taking management of Lightning’s actions and assaults.

Learn our overview of Lightning Returns: Remaining Fantasy XIII.

19. Remaining Fantasy XIV

Remaining Fantasy XIV has a number of storylines, however the primary one entails the participant character touring 5 years into the longer term to flee the destruction of Eorzea by the hands of the primal dragon Bahamut. They enter Eorzea within the Age of Calm and work to rebuild the land, however should cope with the specter of invasion by the Garlean Empire.

The circumstances surrounding Remaining Fantasy XIV’s improvement had been fairly sophisticated — particularly because it’s the second MMORPG title within the sequence. The unique 2010 sport was embroiled in controversy as a result of it was launched in an unfinished state, though its servers remained energetic till November 2012. The following yr, Sq. Enix launched Remaining Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn with favorable acclaim and went on to supply 4 expansions: Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy XIV.

20. Remaining Fantasy XV

The newest installment revolves round Noctis, a prince from the dominion of Lucis is about to marry his childhood pal Lunafreya when he goes on a quest to rescue the Crystal from Niflheim, who stole it throughout an assault on the Lucian capital of Insomnia, killing his father within the course of, on the eve of peace negotiations between the 2 empires. Throughout his journey, he learns of his future to make use of the Crystal’s powers to avoid wasting the realm of Eos from everlasting darkness.

Remaining Fantasy XV acquired important popularity of its beautiful visuals, gameplay — like driving around the globe within the Regalia and the Energetic Cross Battle system — and its visceral soundtrack, together with a rendition of “Stand By Me” by Florence + The Machine used as the sport’s theme track in addition to just a few contributions from Afrojack. The sport spawned just a few spin-off video games, the anime sequence referred to as Brotherhood: Remaining Fantasy XV, and a characteristic movie Kingsglaive: Remaining Fantasy XV.

Learn our overview of Remaining Fantasy XV.

How To Play The Remaining Fantasy Video games By Launch Date

If you wish to play the Remaining Fantasy video games within the order during which they got here out, right here’s the record of video games by launch date. Remember the fact that most titles had been launched in Japan first, adopted by the U.S. at a later date. The primary six video games are remastered for the Nintendo Swap in Remaining Fantasy Pixel Remaster.

1. Remaining Fantasy – December 18, 1987 (JP) / Might 1990 (NA) – Famicom/NES
2. Remaining Fantasy II – December 17, 1988 (JP) / April 8, 2003 (NA) – Famicom, PlayStation
3. Remaining Fantasy III – April 27, 1990 (JP) / August 24, 2006 (NA) – Famicom, Nintendo DS (remake)
4. Remaining Fantasy IV – July 19, 1991 (JP) / November 23, 1991 (NA) – Tremendous NES
5. Remaining Fantasy V – December 6, 1992 (JP) / October 5, 1999 (NA) – Tremendous Famicom, PlayStation
6. Remaining Fantasy VI – April 2, 1994 (JP) / October 11, 1994 (NA) – Tremendous NES
7. Remaining Fantasy VII – January 31, 1997 (JP) / September 7, 1997 (NA) – PlayStation
8. Remaining Fantasy VIII – February 11, 1999 (JP) / September 7, 1999 (NA) – PlayStation
9. Remaining Fantasy IX – July 7, 2000 (JP) / November 14, 2000 (NA) – PlayStation
10. Remaining Fantasy X – July 19, 2001 (JP) / December 18, 2001 (NA) – PS2
11. Remaining Fantasy XI – Might 16, 2002 (JP) / March 23, 2004 (NA) – PS2
12. Remaining Fantasy X-2 – March 13, 2003 (JP) / November 18, 2003 (NA) – PS2
13. Remaining Fantasy XII – March 16, 2006 (JP) / October 31, 2006 (NA) – PS2
14. Remaining Fantasy XIII – December 17, 2009 (JP) / March 9, 2010 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
15. Remaining Fantasy XIII-2 – December 15, 2011 (JP) / January 31, 2012 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
16. Lightning Returns: Remaining Fantasy XIII – November 21, 2013 (JP) / February 11, 2014 (NA) – PS3, Xbox 360, PC
17. Remaining Fantasy XIV – August 27, 2013 – PS3, PS4, PS5, PC
18. Remaining Fantasy XV – November 29, 2016 – PS4, Xbox One, PC